Vilnius region
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Vilnius region (Lithuanian Vilniaus kraštas, Polish Litwa Środkowa) refers to a part of historical Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was disputed between Poland and Lithuania between Polish-Bolshevik War and World War II. Although a part of Poland in the interbellum, it was claimed by Lithuania as a part of the latter state.
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[edit] History
Most of the area historically belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Partitions of Poland in late 18th century it was annexed by Imperial Russia. In the effect of World War I it was seized by Germany and given to the civilian administration of the Ober-Ost. With the German defeat in the Great War and the outbreak of hostilities between various factions of the Russian Civil War, the area became disputed by Poland, Lithuania and a short-lived Belarusian People's Republic. As the latter state, crated as part of German plan of Mitteleuropa, did not manage to establish a strong authority, the administration over most of the region was granted to newly-reborn state of Poland.
After the outbreak of the Polish-Bolshevik War, during the summer offensive of the Red Army, the region got under Russian occupation. In exchange for military cooperation, the Bolshevist authorities signed a treaty with Lithuania on July 12 of 1920. According to the Russo-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920, all area disputed between Poland and Lithuania, at the time controlled by the Bolsheviks, was to be transferred to Lithuania. However, the actual control over the area remained in Russian hands. After the Battle of Warsaw of 1920 it became clear that the advancing Polish Army would soon recapture the area. Seing that they could not secure it, the Bolshevik authorities started to transfer the area to Lithuanian sovereignty. The advancing Polish Army managed to retake much of the disputed area before the Lithuanians arrived, while the most important part of it with the city of Vilnius / Wilno was secured by Lithuania.
Since the two states were not at war, diplomatic negotiations started. Since Lithuanians were but a small minority in the disputed area while Poles constituted approximately 60% of its inhabitants (the rest being mostly Belarusians and Jews), the Polish authorities demanded the return of the areas seized by Russia and then given to Lithuania. On the other hand the Lithuanian government argued that the majority of those who declared Polish nationality were in fact polonized Lithuanians and that the area was historically a part of Lithuanian part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The negotiations and international mediation led to nowhere and until 1922 the disputed territory remained divided onto Lithuanian and Polish part.
Finally, in 1922, after a staged coup, Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski seized the Lithuanian part of the disputed territory and created there a semi-independent state of Central Lithuania (see that article for more info on the talks and resolution of the conflict). Although the following year it voted to join Poland and the choice was later accepted by the League of Nations, the area granted to Lithuania by the Bolsheviks in 1920 continued to be claimed by Lithuania, with the city of Wilno being treated as that state's capital and the actual capital in Kaunas was seen as temporary. It was not until 1938 that the two states resolved diplomatic relations.
[edit] Terminology
The term Vilnius region is used almost exclusively in Lithuanian historiography to describe the territory seized from Poland by the Red Army during the Polish-Bolshevik War and then promised to Lithuania. Since the Polish government never acknowledged the Russo-Lithuanian convention of July 12, 1920, that granted the latter state with parts of Polish territory, the term is barely ever used in Polish historiography.
Instead, the Polish historians usually refer to Central Lithuania, that is the part of the disputed area that was actually controlled by Lithuania at the moment the Peace of Riga was signed. Nevertheless, the Lithuanian authorities did not acknowledge the Polish-Lithuanian border of 1918-1920 as permanent nor did they ever acknowledged the sovereignty of Central Lithuania. Because of that, in Lithuanian historiography all of the disputed area is referred to as occupied by Poland, despite the fact that a large part of it was never governed or occupied by Lithuania.
[edit] Ethnography
As most of the censae organised for the area prior to 1991 are disputed by Lithuanian historians, it is difficult to measure the exact ethnic and cultural pattern. According to both the 1916 census organised there by the German authorities and the post-war Polish censae of 1921 and 1931, there were approximately 5% of Lithuanians living in the area, with several almost purely-Lithuanian enclaves located to the south-west of Wilno and to the north of Święciany (Lithuanian Švenčionys). The majority of the population was composed of Poles (roughly 60%), Belarusians (roughly 25%) and Jews (roughly 8%). However, the Lithuanian government claimed that the majority of local Poles were in fact polonised Lithuanians and that sovereignty upon the territory they settled should be passed to Lithuania. On the other hand, it was the Lithuanian side to boycott the idea of a plebiscite that would decide on the future of the region.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- [http://www.halgal.com/pur_maps_ethnic.html Repatriation and Resettlement of Ethnic Poles
Maps of Ethnic Groups]
